Cabell Foundation Challenge Grant to Help Fund Research Professorships

A challenge grant of $250,000 has been awarded to William & Mary Law School to supplement the William H. Cabell Research Professorship Endowment, and will allow two law professors to benefit from the foundation's funds. The grant has been made by The Cabell Foundation of Richmond.

The grant challenges the Law School to raise $250,000 in new funds between December 2008 and December 2009.  Upon meeting this goal, the Law School will receive matching funds from The Cabell Foundation. 

"In order to continue to educate powerful advocates and wise counselors, we need to attract the best legal scholars and teachers to prepare the next generation of lawyers," said interim Law School Dean Lynda Butler. "Our faculty is superb. However, if we are to retain our current faculty and recruit new professors, we must provide them with the opportunities and funding needed to pursue their own research."

The William H. Cabell Research Professor for the academic year 2009-10 is Nancy Combs. She holds a Ph.D. in International Law from Leiden University, a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, a B.A. from the University of Portland, and a certificate from The Hague Academy of International Law.

During law school, Combs served as an articles editor on the California Law Review and was awarded the Thelin Marrin prize for graduating first in her class.  Following graduation, she clerked for Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and for Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Prior to joining the William & Mary faculty in 2004, she served as legal advisor at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague. She is the author of two books, Guilty Pleas in International Criminal Law: Constructing a Restorative Justice Approach (Stanford University Press, 2007) and Fact-Finding Without Facts: The Uncertain Evidentiary Foundations of International Criminal Convictions (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2009).

"I am delighted by The Cabell Foundation's continuing support and generousity," Butler said.  "Our ability to offer two Cabell Research Professorships to deserving faculty each year will truly impact the Law School's teaching and research missions."

The Cabell Foundation was established in 1957 by Mr. and Mrs. Robert G. Cabell III of Richmond, Virginia, as a private charitable foundation. While preference is given to qualifying organizations in the Richmond area, The Cabell Foundation has provided challenges to colleges and universities throughout the Commonwealth.